Criterion 6. Maintenance and Enhancement of Long-Term Multiple Socioeconomic Benefits To
Meet the Needs of Societies
National Report on Sustainable Forests—2010
Indicator 6.43.
Area and Percent of Forests Managed Primarily To Protect the Range of Cultural, Social, and
Spiritual Needs and Values
What is the indicator and why is it important?
This indicator measures the area of forest land managed
primarily to protect cultural, social, and spiritual values. These
values are important dimensions of social well-being for people
concerned about forests—whether they live in or near forests
or at great distances from them. Where people with unique
needs for cultural, social, or spiritual values are only able to
meet their needs in unique places; this places a premium on the
protection and management of those locations.
What does the indicator show?
Americans favor protecting wild forest areas. Primary reasons
for wanting protection are for air quality, water quality, and
wildlife habitat, use by future generations, protection of unique
plants and animals, and for protection of rare and endangered
species. People living in different regions of the country differ
very little in what they value about protected wilderness and
other public lands (Cordell, 2008—http://warnell.forestry.uga.
edu/nrrt/nsre/IRISWild/IrisWild1rpt.pdf).
Protected public forests
Government-owned forest land in the United States by region is
listed in table 43-1. This indicator assumes that all government
land is protected to some degree. An estimated 328 million
acres of Federal, State, or local government forest land exist
in the United States, about 44 percent of U.S. total forest area
(USDA Forest Service, 2007).
The World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) employs
a classification system to categorize protected natural areas.
Using this system of categories, protected public forests in
the United States are described. WCPA Category 1a (science
natural areas) is represented by experimental forests across
the country. A total of more than 940,000 acres of forest are
designated as experimental forests in the United States. More
than 58 percent of the total experimental forest area is in the
Pacific Coast region; about one-fourth is in the Rocky Mountain Region. Experimental forests represent about 0.1 percent
of the United States’ total forest area. Table 43-1 also shows
acres of public forest land in WPCA Categories Ib through
VI. Just more than 20 percent of public forest is protected
as wilderness (National Wilderness Preservation System,
Category Ib), just under 7 percent, is in national parks (Category
II), and 0.4 percent of public forest area is designated as natural
monuments. Of government-owned U.S. forest, 13 percent is in
WPCA Category IV, mainly wildlife refuges; and 0.2 percent
is within the boundaries of protected national lakeshores and
seashores. The largest category of government protected forest
(Category VI) includes managed lands such as national forests,
BLM lands, and other State and local government lands. This
Table 43-1. Acres (in 1,000s) and percent of public forest by region and by category using the World Commission on
Protected Area (WCPA) classification system. (Percentages sum down to 100, except in the last column, where they
represent all 751 million acres of U.S. forest land, both protected and not protected.)
WCPA Category
Ia: Strict nature reserves
North
Rocky
Mountains
South
Acres
(%)
Acres
(%)
Acres
(%)
Pacific
Coast
Acres
U.S.
Total
(%)
Acres
(%)
All U.S. Forest
(percent)
86.5
0.2
71.2
0.2
233.8
0.2
548.7
0.4
940.2
0.3
0.1
1,559.1
3.5
2,384.9
8.3
21,338.7
18.9
40,853.1
28.6
66,135.9
20.2
8.8
951.9
2.2
2,941.5
10.3
7,836.1
6.9
10,124.5
7.1
21,854
6.7
2.9
3.7
0
28.7
0.1
865.2
0.8
423.0
0.3
1,320.7
0.4
0.2
1,563.8
3.6
3,440.9
12
7,226.7
6.4
31,083.0
21.8
43,314.4
13.2
5.8
179.9
0.4
332.9
1.2
0
0
33.8
0
546.6
0.2
0.1
VI: Managed protected areas
39,634
90.1
19,479
67.9
75,255
66.7
59,720
41.8
194,087
59.1
25.8
All public forest
43,979
Ib: Wilderness
II: National parks
III: Natural monuments
IV: Habitat/species management
V: Protected landscape/seascapes
28,679
112,755
142,786
328,199
43.7
Sources: Include Government agencies, http://wilderness.net, USDA Forest Service, 2009 (appendix table 2)
Last Updated June 2011 1
National Report on Sustainable Forests—2010
category makes up almost 60 percent of total U.S. protected public
forest lands. The region with the greatest acreage of governmentowned forests is the Pacific Coast Region, which run from
Cali­fornia to Alaska, and include Hawaii. The next highest
government-owned acreage is in the Rocky Mountain Region.
Protected private forests
Conservation of private land through land trusts has been
increasing during the past few years. Figure 43-1 shows the
increase in State and local trusts. The National Land Trust
Census Report indicated that total acreage conserved through
private means in 2005 was 37 million acres, representing a
54-percent increase, since 2000. This acreage includes land
protected by local and State land trusts, and land protected by
large national land conservation groups. Examples of large
national groups include The Nature Conservancy, Ducks Unlimited, The Conservation Fund, and The Trust for Public Land.
A land trust is a nonprofit organization that actively works
to conserve land through conservation easements, direct fee
simple acquisitions or by stewardship of easements. The
Land Trust Alliance of the United States has been organized
to unite organizations in local communities for natural area
conservation (http://www.landtrustalliance.org). Internationally, organizations such as the World Commission on Protected
Areas works within the framework of the United Nations to
track and stimulate countries around the globe to designate
forests and other lands as protected areas.
The Forest Legacy Program (FLP) is a Federal program
managed by the Forest Service in partnership with States. This
Figure 43-1. Private land protected by local and State
land trusts in the United States, 2000–2005.
2000
4.0
2005
3.5
What has changed since 2003?
A significant total area of forest land has been added to the U.S.
experimental forest system (national increase of 65 percent
since 2003). Much of this increase has been in the Pacific Coast
Region, mainly by adding a Hawaiian tropical forest (almost
313,000 acres of State land) and more than 7,000 acres of the
Tahoe National Forest in California. Slight losses of public
land overall in the North and South are primarily reflecting differences in land area estimation methods between the different
time periods. For private forest land, a dramatic increase has
occurred since 1985 in the total private forest acres protected
through trusts and easements.
Table 43-2. Total private forest acres protected by
conservation easements or fee simple purchases
through the Forest Legacy Program as of February 2008
by Resource Planning Act (RPA) Region.
RPA Region
Protected Acres
Percent
1,116,810
114,099
281,209
64,176
1,576,294
70.9
7.2
17.8
4.1
100.0
2.0
North
South
Rocky Mountain
Pacific Coast
U.S. Total
1.5
Source: USDA Forest Service, Forest Legacy Program (http://www.fs.fed.us/
spf/coop/programs/loa/flp_projects.shtml)
3.0
Acres (millions)
partnership is aimed at protection of environmentally sensitive
private forest lands. Mostly, FLP easements restrict development and require sustainable forestry practices. FLP can also
directly support land acquisition. As of 2008 in the United
States, almost 1.6 million acres of privately owned forest land
have been protected (table 43-2). About 85 percent of this
national total (roughly 1.3 million acres) has been protected
through State-level conservation easements (FLP supported
specifically). Another 0.2 million acres (about 15 percent)
was protected through fee simple acquisition. Much of this
protected private forest land is in the North Region, more than
70 percent. By far, the State of Maine was the most successful
single State in protecting forest land through the FLP. Maine’s
program added well more than 600,000 acres through easements and purchases. New Hampshire and Montana were the
next largest States for protecting forest land.
2.5
1.0
0.5
cif
ic
-A
tla
id
Pa
nt
ic
t
Region
M
M
id
w
es
t
rth
w
es
st
No
rth
ea
st
No
he
a
ut
So
So
ut
hw
es
t
0
Source: National Land Trust Census Report for 2005
Last Updated June 2011 2